Friday, November 2, 2012

Inbox - November 2, 2012

Inbox is our weekly round up of whisky news and PR material that has found its way in to our email inbox. It was created as we cannot write full articles or do justice to every piece that we receive. It features items from around the world of whisky and is published by us each Friday.

Within Inbox we aim to write a few lines detailing each press release/piece of news/PR event that we have received and provide links, where possible, for you to find out further information.  Here is the news that has attracted our attention this week ...


Ballantine's - Change The Plan
The popular blended whisky brand of Ballantine’s Finest is aiming to connect with the younger generation with the latest addition to its successful 'Plan Ballantine’s' campaign - a new TV commercial, which highlights the brand’s increased association with music. This new advert, entitled ‘Change the Plan', will been seen in over 85 countries. The 'Plan Ballantine’s' campaign features a wide range of global marketing activity, including print, radio and outdoor advertising as well as experiential events, PR, digital activity and social media.

Peter Moore, the Brand Director of Ballantine's comments, “Ballantine’s is all about leaving an impression, so with this new advert we’re aiming to do just that by inspiring consumers to 'change the plan' and really live their lives. We are very proud of this new advert and we’re confident that its strong reference to music will score highly with Ballantine’s Finest’s global target audience.”





Speyburn - New 25 year old
The Speyside distillery of Speyburn, which is owned by Inver House Distillers, has announced the release of the new version of its 25 year old single malt. It replaces the award winning Speyburn 25 Year Old Solera.  The whisky is constructed from a mix of American oak ex-Fino sherry and ex-bourbon casks, with the spirit matured for its entirety on site at Speyburn distillery.  It is bottled at an alcoholic strength of 46%ABV and is unchill-filtered and of natural colour.

This new version of Speyburn 25 years old is presented in the new Speyburn bottle, which was launched across the core single malt range earlier this year, and is encased in a silver wooden box.  It comes complete with two engraved collapsible metal tasting cups. Each pack is signed personally by the Speyburn Distillery Manager Robert Anderson, who personally selected the whiskies to be used. The recommended retail price is £240 and it will be available shortly in specialist whisky retailers around the world.


Whyte & Mackay - Shackleton's second coming 
The Glasgow based whisky company of Whyte & Mackay have announced that they have recreated a second edition of their popular Mackinlay's whisky.  The new version is called Mackinlay's The Journey and was announced at the recent Whisky Fest event in New York.  Further details of the new whisky will be announced, but below is what we have so far and a short video by Richard Paterson, the Master Blender for Whyte & Mackay, explaining about it.

The original Shackleton Blend, which was released in early 2011, was a close recreation of whisky which had been specially created for Shackleton's failed expedition to the Antarctic in 1907/08.  It had been found by explorers in a hut used by Shackleton's team as a base, and had laid undiscovered under the ice for a century.

The launch, and the whisky, coincides with an expedition which will recreate Ernest Shackleton's pioneering footsteps across the Antarctic - this has been organised by Ernest's grand daughter Alexandra Shackleton and will be led by renowned polar explorer Tim Jarvis.  The expedition will take place in January/February 2013 and will cover 800 nautical miles.  Whyte & Mackay are donating money from the sale of each bottle of The Journey towards the Antarctic Heritage Trust, and hope to raise £500,000.

The packaging for The Journey sees the bottle comes wrapped in straw, as were the original bottles found in Shackleton's hut in the Antarctic. This is contained in a hexagonal box similar to those used by museums to ship precious artefacts. Whyte & Mackay plan to create 100,000 bottles for this second edition and it will be available in key markets including Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the USA and the travel retail sector. As yet, the price has not been announced. To read more, visit www.theshackletonwhisky.com.




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